More than 100 insurance companies operate illegally in Brazil, taking in R$ 3 billion per year on forged policies and bilking consumers.

Lacking the resources and capital reserves to back their policies, these groups generally operate in auto insurance, involving 500,000 cars, but also exploit poor Brazilians who invest in funeral insurance.

The misery of poor Brazilians cheated out of their funeral insurance by sharpers is painful to contemplate. The miserable Brazilian is by far the most miserable miserable person I have ever met, never having lived in other recovering Third World hell holes. But gradually, the Law is shaking the dust off its robes, I am happy to say.

In the first five months of this year, the private insurance regulator, Susep, fined 29 of these firms, many of them of foreign origin, a total of R$ 110 million. Using documents and identification identical to those used by legitimate insurers, the pirate insurers managed to deceive their customers. Treasury minister Guido Mantega ordered Susep to step up its vigilance, purge the illegal operators and gurantee the credibility of the insurance sector.

.Honest to god, I have actually been thinking about writing a financial thriller set in Brazil, with a less than hard-boiled Brazilian CPA who finds his inner Sam Spade when he stumbles across a money laundering operation.